Oval-ball game needs success to stay trendy in Paris society

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When Gustave Eiffel built his famous tower 118 years ago, rugby in France was just spreading outwards from Le Havre and the engineer may not have envisaged his Paris landmark being decked out in World Cup colours alongside a giant rugby ball. But the sixth global tournament, which begins this evening at the Stade de France in the dingy suburb of St Denis, has seized the imagination of the entire country.

One of the many advertisements linking world-renowned companies with rugby shows a nation linking arms in a never-ending crocodile behind Les Bleus, who kick off the tournament against Argentina